Hello, dear inquisitive reader. This time, I’m honored to bring to your realization the bare facts as to why countries such as Senegal, Mali, Togo, Guinea, Cameron, and Ghana have similar flags. Keep on reading.
In 1896, Ethiopia defeated Italians-who were after colonizing it-at the battle of Adwa. A year later, that is in 1897, Emperor Menelik II ordered the creation of a flag with a rectangular tri-color from top to bottom. These colors were red, green, and yellow.
In 1957, Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana to independence. Nkrumah was a staunch admirer of Ethiopia and immediately after independence, he decided to adopt Ethiopia’s colors in designing his country’s flag. This was a way of showing honor and respect to Ethiopia as a country that was never colonized. By that time, Ethiopia’s flag had a green stripe on top instead of red.
When colonialists’ rule in Africa was drawing nigh, countries began gaining self-rule. Countries such as Senegal, Mali, Togo, Guinea, and Cameron later adopted Ethiopia’s technique of designing their flags.
Moreover, the colors have been seen to have clear meanings as they have been adopted by a number of countries. Green represents Africa’s fertile agricultural land, yellow stands for the continent’s wealth, red is for the blood that was shed during the fight for independence, and black represents the color of Africans.
The bottom line is that the three colors are the Pan-African colors for unity. Countries adopted them to signify unity and similar heritage.
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